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So, recently if yall have been following my reviews, you noticed that in the Odin works 18 inch DMR barrel review I mentioned the 2A Armament Balios lite receiver set and 12 inch rail. I was talking with Justin (also former employee at Odin), about the products from their company, and I instantly fell in love with the Balios lite receivers. Justin graciously sent out a receiver set, the Balios lite 12 inch rail, a titanium low profile gas block, a set of titanium take down pins, and the baddest business card holder I have ever seen.

When I got the receivers in the mail, my boss, said he was holding them at ransom, until he could have his way with them, behind closed doors. 30 seconds later, I picked up the parts, and gave them the hottest bath they have ever had…………….still concerned that wasn’t enough. (quickly runs to the 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer for a bath). I would have to say, that the receivers were a huge hit in the office, specially the small details and the fit between the upper and lower. Just the fit alone well justifies the price, the other details are freebies in my thoughts. The one thing I loved the most was the front of the magwell, was designed and cut to match a Magpul PMAG, along with how the mags of all kinds, USGI, PMAGS, ETC, just slid into the magwell like glass. The 2 best things about the upper that made my fall in love, was the retention system for the dust cover (no tiny C clip needed), and the cut outs in the PIC rails (check out the photos on their site for better angles).

When I first went to put the rifle together, I had a serious issue with just slapping it together, and well, lets just say they needed a second bath. When building the receivers, I had one tiny issue that I was able to fix later down the road. The rear take down pin detent hole just just a hair too small, from finish build up, but a quick pass with a wire brush fixed that issue. The rest of the build was smoother than Maverick and Goose in the move Top Gun. Everything was just right, and sexy when it was finished. To my amazement, the 12 inch rail, had the same pic rail cut outs as the receiver, and the fit between the receiver and rail were flawless. It was actually designed as part of the rail that when installed on their upper, there would not be a huge piece of unusable pic rail that is on 99% of AR15 builds, and this one looked just like another section of milspec rails.

The gas block, which is by far one of the items I love the most, is simple, yet pleasing to look at. The fit of the gas tube was just right, where it had some resistance, but not so much that you had to beat the tube in, and the fit onto the barrel was yet again perfection. All of these pieces together, and you have simply what I would more than willingly call a high end match gun system for half the price of custom built match guns.

I may have to stand on the street corner with a sign saying “pay me to keep my clothes on” with how addicting the products are from 2A. Sadly, that is still illegal in my state, and I did lose the receivers, and rail in a car fire, and could not save them. I did swap out the gas block a few days prior, and that gas block is now sitting on my Faxon barrel. So, if you want to build a simply beautiful rifle that would make your wife or girlfriend jealous, go over to 2A Armament now, and tell Justin I sent ya.

Feature image courtesy of 2A Armament

By Jimmy Ogletree

Jimmy is a southern man, raised in a military family with over 24 years of firearms experience. He has worked in the security and Law Enforcement field for over 10 years, many of those years were spent in a car for 13 hours a night on patrol. He is also a former investigator for the Department of Defense. Jimmy is an NRA certified instructor, as well as a Florida Security Officer School Instructor.

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